Federal prosecutors are pushing back on assertions from Hunter Biden’s lawyers that a part of the now-shelved plea agreement with the president’s son has been in effect.
In a court filing Tuesday from special counsel David Weiss’ office, prosecutors made clear that as a result of Biden’s not guilty plea last month, none of the discussed arrangements were applicable.
“The Defendant chose to plead not guilty at the hearing on July 26, 2023, and U.S. Probation declined to approve the proposed diversion agreement at that hearing. Thus, neither proposed agreement entered into effect,” prosecutors wrote.
In a court filing Sunday, Biden’s attorneys argued that while a guilty plea on misdemeanor tax charges was off the table for the time being, the so-called diversion agreement that would set aside a separate felony gun charge was “valid and binding.”
The diversion agreement included a section labeled “Agreement Not to Prosecute” that was questioned by the judge overseeing the case during what was expected to be Biden’s guilty plea last month.
The section would provide some protection from Biden getting hit with other charges stemming from the same time period as the misdemeanor tax charges, but the scope of those protections is not clear.
House Republicans who’ve been investigating the financial dealings of the president’s son criticized the plea agreement as a “sweetheart deal” and suggested the immunity protections in the diversion agreement showed Biden was getting preferential treatment.
During the July hearing before Judge Maryellen Noreika, Biden lawyer Chris Clark said the clause was meant to ensure the case “wouldn’t become more politicized” if the government targeted Biden again in the future.
In their Sunday filing, Biden’s attorneys argued the diversion agreement and the “so-called immunity provision” had taken effect because the agreement was signed by Biden, Clark and the lead prosecutor in the case, Leo Wise.
Prosecutors on Tuesday fired back by accusing Biden’s team of being “misleading,” and said they knew the diversion agreement was a “draft” because the two sides tried to negotiate changes to it after the hearing. The prosecutors said they’d noted in court that the document needed to be signed by the probation officer to take effect, and it was not, so “none of its terms are binding on either party.”
An attorney for Biden did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday. Weiss’ office declined comment.
In a separate filing Tuesday, Clark moved to withdraw from Biden’s legal team, since he anticipates he may be called as a witness in any litigation over the failed plea negotiations.
Under the terms of now-scuttled deal, prosecutors had agreed to recommend a sentence of probation if Biden pleaded guilty to two counts of failing to pay his taxes. A separate gun charge for illegally owning a Colt Cobra .38 Special handgun during a period where Biden was doing drugs would have been dropped in two years if he’d honored the terms of the diversion agreement.
Last week, prosecutors said negotiations with Biden’s team had broken down, and the case would likely have to go to trial in California or Washington, D.C. They also suggested they could bring different charges against Biden.
That same week, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Weiss as special counsel to continue his investigation into the president’s son. Weiss, who was already overseeing the investigation as a U.S. attorney in Delaware, had requested the new authority earlier in the week.